


What Should I Call You?

by RedEris



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 20:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14626197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedEris/pseuds/RedEris
Summary: Aedan Cousland meets his son.





	What Should I Call You?

**Author's Note:**

> This fits in the Little Fox universe, but I doubt that it will fit in the main plot, so I'll share it here.

Samhal leaned against the cool stone of the arch, taking in the scene in front of him. Zevran gave him a quick smile to show that he was aware of him, and then went back to watching likewise. Dappled late afternoon light scattered across the stones between them.

“Is he supposed to be hiding?” Samhal finally asked. “Bit big for that.”

“Supposed to be? No. He is very bad at it, yes?” Zevran grinned fondly.

“I can hear you both, you know,” Aedan grumbled from his post behind a column a few yards away. “I’m not hiding. Just...picking my moment.”

“Amor, the past will never come back. The moments we lost are gone. Now you have this moment. Go, speak to him. Signal if you wish me to follow.”

Aedan fisted his hands at his sides in a move that was incongruously childish on the huge, scarred man, and nodded. Jerkily, he moved out into the sunlight of the herb garden.

“So what’s going on?” Samhal asked. “The Hero of Ferelden is afraid of some kid?”

“Of his son, perhaps, yes. The only one he has or is likely to have. They have never met til now.”

Samhal jerked his head back to the scene in the garden, eyes widening.

“Kieran?” The boy looked up from his seat on the bench, pencil hovering over the page he’d been working over. “Hey, um, I’m Aedan Cousland.”

“I know.” The boy’s voice was light, not yet changing. “You’re my father.”

“Oh. Uh.” Aedan shuffled his feet, again boyish. “May I sit down?”

“Okay.” Kieran scootched over and went back to his work, squinting at a fine detail.

“What are you working on, there? Is it the Herald fighting Corypheus’ dragon?”

“No, it’s you and me. See, that’s you--it’s not the Herald, silly, he’s much smaller and hasn’t got any beard. That’s your ponytail. And that’s me. Part of me, I mean. Before you freed it. I was working on it while I waited for you.”

“Freed?” Aedan’s voice was husky. Beside Samhal, Zevran shifted, just a small movement, but Samhal glanced sidways and Zevran’s eyes were wide and glossy.

Unaware, Kieran sketched on. “Well of course.”

“Hang on, you were waiting for me?”

“You’re very bad at hiding. You shouldn’t look like that if you don’t want people to see you.”

“Right. Well. Usually it’s part of my job to be seen.”

“Plus you’re very big.”

“Maybe you’ll be just as big someday.”

“I don’t think so. I take after my mother.”

“Yes, uh. Your mother. Is she...is she good to you? Do you like her?”

“Yes, very much. Even if she is awfully strict sometimes. And I wish she’d let me have caramels. They’re bad for my teeth.”

“I’ll get you some caramels. Just to pi--uh. Make her mad.”

Zevran giggled. Behind him, a smooth female voice spoke quietly.

“You find that amusing? Nearly his first fatherly act, to undermine my authority?”

“Ah, hello Morrigan. No, I find his terrible efforts to suit his language to a child’s ears amusing.”

“Yes, I suppose there is that.”

The garden and its occupants held their breath while Kieran considered his drawing, and then began adding something to the side.

“So. Erm. I’m sorry,” Aedan said into the soft twilight. “Sorry we haven’t met sooner. Sorry I haven’t been a father to you.”

“It’s alright. Mama wanted it that way. She hid us.”

“I could have tried harder.”

“Sometimes I wished you would.”

“I’m sorry,” Aedan repeatedly helplessly.

“You were very busy. Look, there! I added your husband, behind you. Is he my step-father, do you think?”

“I suppose he is, yes. I think he’d like that. He’s much better with children than I am. Would you like to meet him?”

“Yes, thanks--what should I call you? Just your name feels funny.”

Aedan thought about it. “I suppose you can call me whatever you’d like. I’d hate to presume.”

Kieran smiled brightly. “Alright, Papa. Is Papa good?”

Aedan cleared his throat several times. “Yes, it’s good, pup. It’s good.”


End file.
